Ferrari has won a legal battle against its former Technical Director Enrico Cardile to prolong his move to Aston Martin as the Silverstone-based Formula 1 squad’s Chief Technical Officer.
Cardile’s departure from Ferrari to Aston Martin was announced last July, and he immediately entered a period of gardening leave.
It was widely expected that Cardile would take up his new position at Aston Martin with the commencement of the 2025 season but he is yet to don the team’s British Racing Green colours.
Reports from Corriere dello Sport suggested Ferrari was pushing for Cardile to complete a full 12 months of gardening leave.
On Tuesday, it became apparent that the Scuderia had won a legal battle against its former Technical Director (Chassis), preventing him from taking up a position at Aston Martin until July 18.
A statement made by Ferrari via The Race said: “With reference to the recent news regarding the timing of Enrico Cardile’s arrival at Aston Martin, Ferrari clarifies that a few weeks ago the Court of Modena, upholding the requests of the Company, ordered Enrico Cardile to immediately cease any form of collaboration with Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team until next July 18.
“In this urgent procedural phase, the Court of Modena found that our former employee was already violating the non-compete commitment with Ferrari, whose purpose was precisely to prevent other F1 teams from gaining an unjustified competitive advantage by hiring Cardile earlier than allowed, causing irreparable harm to Ferrari.”
Aston Martin announced a leadership restructure ahead of pre-season testing with separate leaders of trackside and factory-based development.
At the time, Aston Martin revealed that Cardile would be overseeing the factory-based development.
Aston Martin’s approach to Cardile now makes sense
In light of this news, the tentativeness with which Aston Martin has approached questions over Cardile becomes clearer.
Aston Martin had been publicly vocal about Adrian Newey’s March 3 starting date, but when asked when Cardile would start work, the company provided non-committal answers.
Speaking to select media including Motorsport Week during pre-season testing, Team Principal and CEO Andy Cowell said: “We’re looking forward to having a…I guess what we’re looking forward to is having 1000 people working well together.
“We’re looking forward to Adrian joining.
“We’re looking forward to the dozens of new starters that we have every month.
“I think it was 248 through the 2024 calendar year.
“So, we’re looking forward to having everybody together and working well as a team, each member having clear responsibilities, from Adrian, myself, down to interns working for us for 12 months in their degree.”
READ MORE – How Aston Martin plans to integrate F1 design chiefs Adrian Newey and Enrico Cardile
